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megelizabeth's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
4.5
"Grief takes a lot of forms, and it stays with you until the end of your days."
This is a raw, poignant, devastating story of grief, loss, self-discovery, friendship, being true to yourself, doing the right thing, and living in a hateful world. There's a lot going on, and the subject matter is certainly heavy for a middle-grade, but the story ends, in my view, with just enough hope to balance that out a little.
The friendships feel very real and it was interesting to see how they develop, and sibling relationships are captured heartbreakingly beautifully. The writing is gorgeous, and there's an incredibly strong atmosphere and sense of place. The writing style is pretty different to that of the only other book I've read by the author, Felix Ever After, which threw me a bit, but I adored the writing nonetheless.
This wasn't quite a five-star read for me because there's a plot point that's kind of abandoned and never properly touched on again, let alone resolved, and also because one element of the ending didn't quite make sense to me (largely due to said plot point not being resolved), which was frustrating. However, I would still highly recommend this book; it broke me and didn't quite put me back together, but I'm so glad that I read it and shared King's world for a while.
This is a raw, poignant, devastating story of grief, loss, self-discovery, friendship, being true to yourself, doing the right thing, and living in a hateful world. There's a lot going on, and the subject matter is certainly heavy for a middle-grade, but the story ends, in my view, with just enough hope to balance that out a little.
The friendships feel very real and it was interesting to see how they develop, and sibling relationships are captured heartbreakingly beautifully. The writing is gorgeous, and there's an incredibly strong atmosphere and sense of place. The writing style is pretty different to that of the only other book I've read by the author, Felix Ever After, which threw me a bit, but I adored the writing nonetheless.
This wasn't quite a five-star read for me because there's a plot point that's kind of abandoned and never properly touched on again, let alone resolved, and also because one element of the ending didn't quite make sense to me (largely due to said plot point not being resolved), which was frustrating. However, I would still highly recommend this book; it broke me and didn't quite put me back together, but I'm so glad that I read it and shared King's world for a while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Child abuse, Racism, Murder, and Religious bigotry
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